Argentina urged to march with photos of disappeared on 50th anniversary of coup

Human rights organisations in Argentina are calling on the public to join a major march on March 24 to mark the 50th anniversary of the military coup that brought the 1976-1983 dictatorship to power.

The groups are urging demonstrators to carry photographs of those who were forcibly disappeared during the dark era, a bid to draw attention to the still ongoing search to discover and formally identify victims.

The mobilisation, which is expected to draw a huge crowd to the Plaza de Mayo, will commemorate half a century since the 1976 coup d'état, which ushered in a brutal military regime responsible for widespread human rights abuses.

Rights groups say an estimated 30,000 people were disappeared by the military junta.

Organisers say this year’s march will centre on a simple message: “Que digan dónde están” – (“Let them say where they are.”) 

Participants are being asked to carry an A4 photograph of a disappeared person, mounted on card and worn around the neck during the demonstration, alongside the victim’s name and the slogan.

The call emphasises the continuing search for truth and accountability decades after the dictatorship ended in 1983. Human rights groups say the question of the disappeared remains unresolved for thousands of families, describing it as “an open wound” in Argentine society.

“Fifty years after the coup, we continue marching to the square with the 30,000, with the same conviction that the only path is justice,” the organisers said in their joint statement.

This year’s commemoration takes place amid growing tensions between rights roups and President Javier Milei’s government.

Since taking office in December 2023, Milei and several members of his administration have challenged elements of the widely accepted narrative about the dictatorship. Officials and allied figures have questioned the figure of 30,000 disappeared and argued for what they describe as a broader interpretation of the violence of the 1970s, emphasising crimes committed by left-wing guerrilla groups alongside those carried out by the state.

Rights organisations say such statements risk undermining decades of work establishing accountability for state terror. Argentina is internationally recognised for its extensive prosecutions of dictatorship-era crimes, many of which were built on the documentation and activism of civil society groups.

Milei’s government – which advocates for a “complete memory” of the period – has moved to reduce funding for some human rights issues and memory institutions, part of a broader austerity programme.

The call to march has been issued by a broad coalition of organisations that have played a central role in documenting abuses committed during the dictatorship and supporting victims’ families.

Among them are the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, known for their decades-long search for children stolen during the dictatorship; the Madres de Plaza de Mayoz–Línea Fundadora, one of the original groups of mothers who began weekly protests in the late 1970s; and Familiares de Desaparecidos y Detenidos por Razones Políticas.

Also participating are H.I.J.O.S. Capital, representing children of the disappeared; the Asamblea Permanente por los Derechos Humanos and its La Matanza chapter; the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales (CELS); and the Liga Argentina por los Derechos Humanos.

Other groups involved include the Asociación Buena Memoria, the Comisión Memoria Verdad y Justicia Zona Norte, Familiares y Compañeros de los 12 de la Santa Cruz, the Fundación Memoria Histórica y Social Argentina and the Movimiento Ecuménico por los Derechos Humanos.

– TIMES/NA